“Unfortunately it was not Kawasaki disease, but something much worse!”

A pediatric hematologist-oncologist in Canada recalls a case where she witnessed a sad progression and tragic outcome of a toddler’s condition.

A little girl with metastatic retinoblastoma came from another province to our Retinoblastoma Center for treatment. At 2 years of age, she had one eye enucleated for unilateral differentiated retinoblastoma with Flexner-Wintersteiner rosettes. There were no high-risk features of tumor spread into the choroid or the optic nerve.

Eleven months later, she presented with an 8-day history of fever, night sweating, anorexia, fatigue, & abdominal, back & leg pains. She was thought to have atypical Kawasaki disease…